Restoring Retro in Home and Dress

01/15/2015

January Tutorial – How to Make a Pashmina Shawl into a 1930s Evening Wrap

My apologies for a week's delay of this tutorial! But it was fairly labor-intensive and I simply couldn't squeeze the time for it among the self-imposed deadline of sewing for an event. Here it is now!

A while ago, while searching for vintage style wraps on Ebay, I came across the picture of a cashmere or pashmina shawl appliqued with flowers which instantly struck me as having a 1930s vibe which I loved. 1930s wraps and coats were luxurious and almost always had overstated, large, gorgeous collars or ruffs, like these photos show.

I always like an appropriate wrap, and have few dressy ones. So my next thought was that rather than paying $50 +, I could make one myself quite economically, since I had a stash of similar shawls already. So here I'm going to show you how to turn a regular rectangular shawl into a gorgeous 1930s evening wrap.

You will need:

1 rectangle shawl

30-35 3-4in. flowers, or supplies to make your own

needle and matching thread

Dark colors are preferable for this project, at least if you are making your own flowers like I am. So I used a plum colored pashmina shawl and some eggplant taffeta I got for a few dollars a yard at Fabric.com – which turned out to be near perfect match.

First I took the shawl and draped it on a mannequin. You can use a live model for this step if you don't have a mannequin. :-) For a good fit, you want to shape it a little from the original rectangle. To create shoulder shaping I pleated it on each side to make a sort of high collar in the back...

...and bound it that way with thread. This creates a base for the appliques and gives it more the shape needed for the 1930s look.

To make the flowers, I used Martha Stewart's lotus flower tutorial. Though they call for silk taffeta, I used synthetic and it worked well. I used 4 in. squares of fabric instead of the 5 in. they use, and did a few 5 layers flowers but mostly stayed with 4 layer flowers.

My first trial didn't turn out so good...probably because I didn't bother with drawing the center circle from templates as they recommend.

The next one looks a lot better!

A bunch of flower layers after being folded and cut, waiting to be singed.

Possibly because I was using synthetic instead of silk taffeta, my edges curled a lot more than the tutorial's example, but I still liked the individual look of each flower. Depending on how deep I made my cut and how far the edge was singed, the petal layers were sometimes different sizes, also unlike the tutorial. I know mine aren't as neat, but as I have mentioned before, I am not a perfectionist! You want nice full, puffy flowers for this project, and preferably something that is structured – rolled roses, for instance, would not be period correct or as dressy. No shabby chic here, please!

I highly recommend using a rotary cutter for these if you are making a lot of them - it makes cutting the squares so much easier and gets them a lot straighter. Ask me how I know!

The next step is to start pinning the flowers on the shawl on the mannequin, starting on or just above the bound areas. (If you don't have a mannequin, use a chair back or T shirt stuffed with plastic bags or something similar which gives the shawl a little of the shape it will need to take when worn.)

Here is where you can let your imagination play, creating a pointed or round collar, as wide or narrow as desired. The wider the collar, the more outre the finished product. You want the outer edge to be fairly even, though.

Pin them all the way up on the collar in the back. Put the flowers close and overlap them, but don't always overlap the same way or put them in obvious rows.

Another hour of making flowers later. See the beginnings of a 1930s silhouette?

Now it's done! All the flowers are made and pinned to my liking.

So the next step is to sew them on. Starting at one end, tack down each flower, making sure to secure the center and a few spots around the bottom layer of petal so it won't shift, catching the folds of all the pleats if there are pleats under the flower.

I ended up sewing some of the bottom layers of the flowers to each other. You don't want to see much shawl, if any, between these flowers when they bend or flex as worn.

My original inspiration photo showed the shawl still in a rectangle with a few flowers scattered over the bottom edge and corners, and while I like that too, I chose to knot my shawl ends instead, which creates a unique tassel look and gives it a true wrap status instead of a slightly more obvious shawl-with-appliques. And it stays on my shoulders without effort – no sliding or ends in the way. Of course at any time I can unknot it and do something else.

But my first knots were done on the mannequin and while I liked the way they looked, when I tried the shawl on, the bottom edge was too tight and the knots in the wrong place, so I re-knotted it while on me and this how it looked afterwards:

I think this idea would look great with a black beaded shawl and black taffeta flowers, or an embroidered shawl! Both beading and embroidery are very Period, and the more lavish the better. Or you could make your own rectangle out of satin or sparkly fabric, maybe making flowers to match out of the same fabric. But after making 30 flowers of 4 and 5 layers each, I doubt I'll want to tackle another one any time soon.

And it's finished. The collar of flowers gives it that dressy ruff shape so popular in the 1930s for evening wraps like this vintage example:

If desired, you can add a hook and eye under the tips of the collar to hook it together. Ready to wear – the perfect special coverup for your evening dress for a banquet, ballroom or opera.

That's it for this month's tutorial! See you next month.

~Kristen - Verity Vintage Studio

Look for my new tutorials posted sometime during the first full week of every month. Hairstyles, crafts, repurposing, etc.

Note: All photos of the purple shawl are mine - all others were found on Pinterest.com.